LEWISBURG -- On his way back for Bucknell's preseason camp following a summer in Minneapolis, Sam Nana-Sinkam has a new travel companion: A tiny card he needs to carry because when the linebacker walks through a metal detectors at airports, they don't like him very much.
The card is a get-out-of-jail-free card for Nana-Sinkam, a sort of modern medical miracle, whose career on the gridiron has been marred by injuries but is now nearing its conclusion.
As talented as any linebacker in the Patriot League since he walked onto the Lewisburg campus of out Manheim Township four summers ago, Nana-Sinkam's career has been characterized by two vastly different things: Production and injuries.
In three years, a total of just 17 games, Nana-Sinkam has nearly 150 total tackles. He was one of the top freshmen in the Patriot League in 2006, making 15 tackles in his collegiate debut and finished in the top 10 in the league in stops at the end of the year.
Then he missed all of his sophomore year with surgery on both shoulders. A bone had to be moved from his leg to one of his shoulders to secure it more.
When he returned to the field as a junior, he picked right up where he left off. Nana-Sinkam had a career-high 18 tackles against Cornell and was among the nation's top tacklers when it happened again. This time it was a broken ankle, which not only forced him to miss the final five and a half games, but required pins and plates to fix the damage, which tend to make a blip inside airports. The injury kept him off the Patriot League all-conference team and possibly denied him All-America honors.
But when Bucknell's camp begins Sunday evening, Nana-Sinkam will be back on the field, right where he should be.
"The injuries, what can you do about them?" said the management major, who is one of the team's students and a two-time Patriot League Academic Honor roll member. "It is what it is. I'd obviously prefer they didn't happen, but you learn from them and you go on.
"You have to put things into perspective. I feel lucky just to have played college football. I really cherish every play."
Nana-Sinkam said the latest injury has not slowed him down one bit. In fact, the 5-foot-10, 235-pound senior said he feels faster and more explosive than ever.
That probably isn't what the rest of the Patriot League players and offensive coordinators want to here.
Thanks to a difficult and time-consuming rehab directed by Bucknell trainer Mark Keppler, when he walks onto the field Sunday night for the first time since he was hurt last October in Washington, D.C., Nana-Sinkam will be ready.
"Other than the shoulder surgery and the ankle surgery, I feel 100 percent," Nana-Sinkam said with a smile at Tuesday's Patriot League Media Day. "I feel faster than I've ever been. I trusted everything the training staff put me through and it has worked out."
As he prepares for his final season, Nana-Sinkam tries to not to think too much about the future, at least when it comes to what his body will feel like in the decades to come.
When he does venture out there, however, he is confident things will work out for the best.
"I am not naive. I know my shoulders won't feel great when I'm 50," he said. "But I'm not too worried about it. With the advancement in technology, I'm sure it will be fine."
n E-mail comments to bbowman@dailyitem.com
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